Below the Horizon
by princylu
Summary: What if at the end of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1, Bella died? What if Edward didn't succeed at turning her? The story wouldn't die with her, because new stories would begin. This is one of them. Mostly Jessica Stanley's POV.
1. Chapter 1

It was the last phone call I ever expected to receive. In fact I hadn't expected to receive any phone calls, which was why I hadn't remembered to turn off my ringer before class.

No, that was a lie. I had just plain forgot.

"I am SO sorry, Professor Miller. It won't happen again."

I ignored the call from Angela and turned my ringer off immediately before setting the phone back down, even as my professor who didn't know my name glared at my from the front of the room. A few of the students around me glanced at each other and chuckled, and some of them even glared at me too. Not exactly the best start to my freshman year.

Professor Miller started speaking again, on a tangent about how important homework assignments were and all the different methods he would accept them in – physical copies, scanned via email, fax, etc.

Who even has a fax machine at college? No one I knew, and it certainly wasn't on my shopping list when I had been setting up my dorm here at USC.

But my phone lit up with Angela's face again as she called me a second time, and I stared at the phone long and hard in confusion. Angela never called me anymore. Usually we talked through text, AIM, and occasionally Skype. Now that she was at Washington State and I was at USC, there wasn't much time to spend chatting on the phone endlessly. Was she just looking to vent about her awful dorm mate again?

I let the call go to voicemail before I returned my eyes to the front of the room. Though I was staring at my professor, I wasn't listening to a word he said.

I mean, if my dorm mate had locked her out with a sock on the door at two o'clock in the afternoon for the second time this week I would probably need to blow off some steam to a friend, too. What kind of a slut is already getting laid the first full week of classes? And how disrespectful was she being to Angela, the bookworm who usually just wanted to sit in her room and read during her free time? Thank God I had ended up with a chill roommate who didn't seem to care about boys, especially since I had sworn off boys since that last weekend with Mike before moving into my dorm.

What a mistake. I should have just stayed home that night. Now I would be ignoring his text messages forever.

The screen on my phone lit up again. Angela. Three times? Something was wrong. This wasn't just her roommate, either. I picked the phone up off of the desk but remembered where I was before sliding over the button on the screen to answer it. Shit.

While Professor Miller started writing his contact information on the dry erase board, I quietly slid my chair back and stood up. I skimmed past the desk next to me before Professor Miller turned around and spotted me, stopping whatever he was saying mid-sentence to glare at me again. This time the whole classroom turned around to do the same.

Great, Jess. Just great. You're the class asshole for the rest of the semester now.

Pointing at the phone in my hand I shook my head and kept moving towards the door, "I'm so sorry, it's got to be an emergency… she knows I'm in class and she called me three times and… yeah, I'm just gonna take this outside."

I turned the knob and pushed my way out of the room, quietly shutting the door behind me. Sliding the green bar across the screen finally, I raised the phone to my ear and made my way down the hallway so that my class couldn't hear me through the door.

"Someone better be dead Angela, I am pretty sure my teacher now hates me."

All I heard was a sob on the other end of the phone. Oh, fuck. Someone was dead. I was just on fire today, wasn't I?

My voice softer now, I attempted to rectify the situation. "Angela? What's going on?"

"I was just sitting here going through my itinerary and writing some notes in my planner and all of a sudden my phone rings and it was Alice Cullen and I was like, why is Alice Cullen calling me? So I picked it up and she told me…" Angela sobbed again, sniffling over the line as she tried to compose herself.

I had no idea where this was going. How did Alice Cullen even have Angela's number?

"Jess, Bella…" Angela trailed off and I could hear her crying on the other end.

My back leaned against the wall and I slid down it until I hit the floor.

"Bella what, Angela?" I knew what she was going to say, but I needed her to say it. It wasn't real until she said the words.

"Bella's gone. She's gone, Jess."


	2. Chapter 2

I sat on the bed in my childhood bedroom and stared at the four pink walls around me. The walls were cluttered with all sorts of memorabilia from Forks High banners to band posters to concert tickets and pictures.

There were so many pictures.

Even though there had been that brief few months in which I was sure Bella Swan would end up in a psych ward at a hospital in Seattle, she was still my friend. Even when I belittled her or shaded her out of jealousy, she was still my friend. I mean, okay, maybe I wasn't really that nice to her or Edward after they got together but… that didn't mean I didn't care about them. Especially Bella. Maybe she wasn't part of Student Government, or the Yearbook Staff, or any sports team ever like the rest of us. But that's what made her Bella, wasn't it? She was the only person who never tried to be something she wasn't in Forks High School, and that's one of the biggest reasons I had been so jealous of her.

And now she was gone.

I hadn't realized I had been crying until my mom knocked on the door and stepped in, but I quickly wiped my cheeks dry with my sleeve.

"Oh, honey. I'm so sorry," she said as she sat on the bed next to me and wrapped her arms around me. I had intended on putting up a fight, but the second I felt her hug me I leaned into her and began crying into her shoulder.

"I can't imagine what poor Chief Swan is going through. I would be inconsolable if anything had ever happened to you. And they just had that beautiful wedding," I heard my mom click her tongue against her teeth and then felt her shaking her head as she rubbed my back. "Such a shame."

I thought about the wedding, which was the last time I had even seen Bella. We waved her and Edward off as they left the Cullen house out in the woods and headed off to their honeymoon in Brazil. Later that night I told Angela I didn't know anyone who would actually ever want to go to Brazil, but that was just jealousy. Again. How did Bella just get so many beautiful things handed to her? What was it about her that I had missed while everyone else fawned over her? I guess I would never know, because I would never see her again.

"I ironed that black sweater dress that was in your closet and hung it back up in your closet so you could wear it to the wake tonight. Do you want to eat before Angela picks you up?"

I shook my head and pulled away from my mom, letting her wipe my now tear stained cheeks clean.

"No, I'm just gonna take a shower and get ready. Maybe after."

Truth was I hadn't had much of an appetite since Angela's phone call yesterday. It was hard to think about food when all I could think of was Bella.

My mom left me with a kiss on the forehead, and I made my way into my bathroom to take that shower I had been craving.

The warm water was more than welcome as it poured over my skin, and I felt alone in my thoughts.

Bella Swan. I remembered the first moment I met her in the gymnasium, the day we lost the volleyball game in class. Even after we started eating lunch together I wouldn't let her back on my team for the rest of high school. She was a pretty terrible volleyball player, after all.

I remembered how beautiful she looked when she walked into our junior prom with Edward Cullen. Edward Cullen, who I had spent so many years chasing after, arm-in-arm with the new girl in town. It was a punch to the gut, but by that time Mike and I were pretty much a thing and though I might have been a bitch, I wasn't horrible enough to break up a relationship – especially my own.

Dozens and dozens of lunches together flashed through my memory, followed by shopping trips to Seattle and surfing trips to La Push. For some reason I thought of her friend Jacob and that time he showed up to school and they rode off together on a motorcycle without Edward, which she never told us about. Then again, their relationship had been so strange we never really asked. It had always been more fun to watch from the outside anyway, constantly speculating and gossiping like they were celebrities or something.

Angela had told me how Bella had died, according to Alice, but it all sounded so strange.

_"Dr. Cullen said she caught some weird bug down there. Something that just ate away at her until there was nothing left. A parasite, he called it. She was so sick she couldn't travel back home until she died."_

A parasite. Where could she have picked up a parasite? You never really heard much about people being sick in Brazil, so where was this mysterious parasite hiding all along? And how did Edward not catch it, too?

Everything was mysterious with the Cullens and always had been, and now that Bella is a Cullen… was a Cullen… I guess everything about her would be mysterious too.


	3. Chapter 3

The moment I stepped through the doorway of the funeral home I could feel that the air was thick.

Angela gripped my hand and we met eyes briefly before we proceeded down the crowded hallway. I tried to survey the crowd without making too much eye contact, because wakes were always such an uncomfortable experience. I never knew what to say and I always ended up saying the wrong thing and I didn't want to get trapped talking to someone I didn't even really know and making an ass out of myself.

It's not like I could do what I usually do and just brag my way through a conversation, either. Wakes weren't exactly the appropriate place for me to be a brat.

Some of Jacob and Bella's friends from La Push lined the hallway near the entrance to the room Bella's wake was in, and I noticed them mostly because they were so tan but also because they seemed so angry. They had been talking amongst themselves, and when they spotted Angela and I nearing they grew quiet and just looked at us with sadness in their eyes. I stopped trying to figure out what they were up to and thought about how nice it was that they had come.

The rest of the hallway was lined with townies I only barely recognized and a few Forks Police Officers there in support of their Chief, Bella's dad Charlie Swan.

Angela and I turned into the room and stopped in the doorway to take it in. I felt Angela's grip tighten and though I was sure my fingers would go numb, I didn't pull away.

My eyes landed on the casket at the front of the room instantly. It was surrounded by enormous and beautiful floral arrangements that looked really, really expensive. I could see that it was an open casket, and I could just barely make out Bella's face from where we were standing.

I felt Angela nudge me, and when I glanced at her she nodded towards the front again.

Charlie Swan's silhouette sat in the front row staring straight ahead. A man in a wheelchair sat in the aisle to his right, and a dark haired woman sat with to his left with her arm around his shoulders.

I felt my heart sink.

If it weren't for Angela I probably never would have gone further into that room, but she took the necessary steps to get us on the line to pay our respects and share our condolences. There weren't many people waiting and Charlie wasn't being very receptive, so the line moved pretty quickly.

I scanned the room as we moved along and noticed who wasn't there.

"Ang, they're not here." I whispered towards her.

"I know. I noticed that, too."

It was rare that Angela was thinking the same thing I was when it came to gossip-y matters, so I knew I wasn't wrong in finding it strange that Bella's own husband his family were not in the room.

We were now behind a couple who shared with the man in the wheelchair that they were neighborsm and though the man in the wheelchair shook their hands and thanked them for coming Charlie stared blankly ahead at Bella.

As they moved along and we stepped forward I saw Charlie's eyes move from Bella to us, and I saw him suck in his breath. This must have been the first sound he had made in a while because both the man in the wheelchair and the woman next to him turned to look at him in shock. Then Charlie stood up.

"Girls, I..," Charlie began, then he stopped. His gaze shifted past us to Bella again and I could see his already bloodshot eyes welling up with more tears. A lump formed in my throat and without even thinking about it, I let go of Angela's hand and wrapped my arms around him in a hug.

"I'm so sorry, Chief Swan. I'm so sorry," I repeated. I could feel that he was crying and tears slipped out of my own eyes and fell down my cheeks.

Jacob appeared seemingly out of nowhere behind Charlie and leaned down to whisper something into the man in the wheelchair's ear. The man nodded, then reached forward and gripped Charlie's arm. I took that as a queue to pull away and paused to say goodbye to Charlie before walking away, but I saw the light in his eyes flicker back on. Instead of sadness I saw rage, blind rage, and his whole body turned around in an instant.

Angela and I exchanged confused looks while Jacob blocked Charlie from moving, and then I saw them.

Edward entered the room first, followed closely by his sister Alice and of course Jasper. Just a step or two behind them were Dr. Cullen and his wife, and then of course Emmett and Rosalie.

Was Rosalie carrying a baby?

Before Angela and I could react or move away, Charlie was yelling from in front of Jacob.

"How dare you walk in this room! You were not invited, you are not welcome here!"

I had never heard Bella's dad yell before, and it was frightening. The Cullens paused just inside the entrance while everyone stared at them. Aside from Charlie, the room had fallen silent.

"Charlie, I know you're angry, but it's not his-," Jacob tried to reason with him but Charlie cut him off, clearly not in the mood to be patronized.

"You!" Charlie screamed, pointing at Edward. "You killed my daughter!"


	4. Chapter 4

Well, this was awkward.

Angela grabbed my hand again and tugged me away from where Charlie and I had greeted each other.

"Maybe we should go," I heard her whisper but I shook my head, mesmerized by what was unfolding before us.

How did we always end up just on the cusp of Cullen family drama? Any time we were around them it felt like they were all having discussions amongst themselves, and sometimes it felt like we were just observers in their life. Right now, I was mostly fascinated by Charlie's accusation that Edward had killed Bella. I guess I wasn't the only person who thought this parasite nonsense was strange.

As if he had heard my thoughts, Edward's eyes landed on mine. They were dark. Had they always been that dark? I felt as if I were being scolded and looked down at the floor, suddenly regretting my decision to judge the situation. I didn't know what happened in Brazil, and there was no way Edward could have killed Bella. Even though he was definitely obsessed with her in a creepy Lifetime movie stalker sort of way, even I knew and accepted the fact that she was his world.

When I looked back to see what was going on Edward was still staring at me, but his gaze was softer now. Almost apologetic, even. I thought about how creepy it was that he always seemed to know exactly how to react to my thoughts, and he looked away. This only further proved my point.

"Charlie, come on, sit down," the dark haired woman who had been sitting next to him and weaseled her way between Charlie and Jacob to try talking him down. Charlie was crying now, his hands covering his face as he sobbed into them. He listened to the woman, turning back to take his seat as she had suggested.

"It just doesn't make sense, Sue," I heard him say as he pulled his hands from his face to accept her tissue offer. "It just doesn't make sense."

Jacob turned to the Cullens and signaled for them to come forward, and Edward nodded as he continued to make his way in. The rest of them followed suit. Last I had heard Jacob wasn't a big fan of the Cullens, so this was all getting more and more bizarre by the minute.

Angela tugged my hand, and when I turned to look at her she nodded towards Bella's casket. Among all of this drama we still hadn't paid our respects to Bella. I took a deep breath and turned to face her, instantly forgetting what was going on behind me.

We moved in unison and I hadn't realized I had been holding my breath until I got in front of the casket and gasped.

That wasn't Bella Swan in that casket. It couldn't be. She looked… well, terrible to be quite honest. And not in the usual Bella way that I teased her on occasionally, but in a way I couldn't quite describe. She was emaciated, practically to the bone by the looks of it. Her annoyingly perfect complexion was very obviously caked in make-up, and though they had tried desperately to cover them up I could make out very light grey circles around her eyes.

From the corner of my eye I could see Angela's hand cover her mouth in a poor attempt to muffle a sob. I let go of her hand and wrapped my arm around her shoulder tightly, but I couldn't take my eyes off of Bella's body.

"She looks so..," I trailed off. I didn't want to say it out loud. I knew that it was rude, and I didn't want to be rude. But seeing her the way she was, the dress they had put on her body clearly too big for her frail body, and that silk scarf around her neck. Had Bella ever even wore a scarf like that?

"Awful. Jess, she looks just awful." Angela whispered through her tears. I nodded silently, feeling slightly relieved I wasn't the only one thinking it.

"I wish we hadn't come. I wish we hadn't seen her like this. My last image of Bella was in that beautiful wedding gown, and now I won't be able to get this out of my head."

Angela was right. We hadn't needed to see Bella this way. Why was it an open casket, anyway? Who needed visual proof that she was inside? Then I thought of Charlie, and how he had probably wanted it this way so he could see her one last time. I can't imagine he was too thrilled with the visual though.

Staring down at her body I thought of all the times I had been an absolutely horrific friend to her. Any time I made a quip about her or gossiped about her and Edward behind their backs. It all flashed through my mind in an instant and I was flooded with regret and sadness. Bella had been my friend, and I had been so selfish and jealous and just plain mean sometimes. She didn't deserve that, even if she had won over Edward so quickly.

I thought for a moment about what could have been a life-long friendship. We would all get together on breaks from school over the next four years; maybe even plan a Spring Break somewhere awesome. Me, Angela, Eric, Mike, Bella, even Edward and Alice. Probably Jasper. Eventually Angela and I would get married, too. Bella would be there for both weddings, a bridesmaid of course. One day the whole me being jealous of Edward thing would be a joke, something we could all laugh about over a dinner table. Our kids would have play dates and go to school together, grow up together like Angela and I had.

"Oh, Jess. Shhh, it's okay." Now Angela's arms were wrapped around me and it was startling when I realized I was the one crying, somewhat hysterically, in front of Bella's body.


	5. Chapter 5

Edward's POV.

My fingers gripped the bottom of the whiskey glass, turning it slowly, careful not to crack the glass by gripping too hard.

"It's a psychological thing, Edward. A drink will calm you down," Carlisle had said before sliding the glass across the table to me.

I was positive nothing would ever calm me down again. I woke up in the morning filled with regret, sadness, guilt, and by the end of the day I was filled with so much rage that my own family was starting to keep their distance for their safety.

Carlisle knew better, though. He knew I wouldn't touch the brown liquor that swirled around the bottom of the glass I continued to turn.

"Renesme is growing at a fascinating rate, Edward. You should really go spend some time with her," Carlisle said softly as he took the seat across from me.

In an instant I was standing and the glass between my fingers was now smashed against the wall across the room, the liquor dripping down slowly.

"That… that thing killed Bella. I will not go anywhere near it." My teeth were clenched together so tightly I wasn't sure Carlisle even understood me, but the crease in his eyebrows followed by his eyes hitting the table in front of us told me he did.

I did not want to have this conversation again. I did not want to be swindled by the creature that had taken the one and only person I was sure I could ever truly love away from me right before my very eyes. Everyone else saw her as a gift, and I saw her as a threat.

Each time I heard her name I could see the light fade out of Bella's eyes in my mind. It replayed like a broken record, over and over. I saw her boney pale body go limp, blood flowing from her abdomen as I raced to save her. I bit everywhere I could – neck, wrists, ankles, thighs, shoulders - everywhere I could think blood would flow through, but by the time I did so her heart had already stopped beating. If her heart wasn't beating her blood wasn't flowing, and therefore my venom was not coursing through her veins and taking over her body.

Even as Jacob pleaded with me to stop I pumped her heart with chest compressions. I felt her body shaking underneath me but it wasn't Bella, it was the force of my hands and the weight of my body on top of her. I pushed and pushed and pushed until I felt what was left of her brittle rib cage snap underneath me. I sat there horrified, my blood covered fingers trailing over Bella's cold, dead body until someone had finally asked Emmett to pull me off of her. To this day I still didn't know who had summoned him. Jacob, maybe. Carlisle could have had a hand in it, too.

I fought Emmett when I realized he was doing, what his purpose was in that instance, but no amount of rage made me stronger than my brother.

Emmett sat me down on the couch in Carlisle's office and waited with me. I could hear the conversations happening in the house and wanted out, but I knew if I moved Emmett would pin me down in a second thinking I was headed to Bella.

Carlisle was double checking Bella's body, and I heard his decision to pull the blanket over her along with noting her time of death. Esme was distraught in the kitchen, not quite sure what to do with herself or who she should be consoling at the moment. Rosalie was fawning over Renesme, blissfully unaware that Bella was dead in another room. I could hear Renesme's heartbeat and her thoughts of confusion, she was looking for Bella. Jacob had locked himself in the bathroom and was hysterical. Jasper was consoling Alice who, in that moment, had decided to come and see me.

The thought of Alice enraged me. When she walked in the room I wanted to lunge at her, but instead I gripped the edge of the couch.

"Edward, I'm so sorry…"

"Why didn't you see this? Why didn't you know?" I demanded from her, refusing to allow her a chance to pity me.

Her eyes flashed to Emmett who had stood up, ready to leave me alone with Alice until he heard the tone of my voice. Instead he now stood between us, just a tiny bit closer to me and ready to pounce. His thoughts circled around the idea that he might have to stop me from hurting our own sister, and he wasn't wrong.

"Edward, I… this isn't… I didn't see this. I don't know why. Something must have changed." Alice shook her head, feeling guilty and defeated as she stared at me. "This isn't my fault."

I stood up and put my hand out to hit Emmett in the chest as he approached me, knocking him back against the bookshelves.

"Nothing changed! Nothing was different! You should have warned us, you should have warned _her_."

Alice took a step back and suddenly Jasper was at her side, which subsided my rage just enough to keep me from moving forward.

"Edward, please. This never came to me. I never saw this. You know as well as I do that I saw the two of you together, as vampires, otherwise the Volturi never would have let us go," Alice pleaded.

I knew she wasn't lying, I could hear that every word she said was the truth and nothing but, but for some reason the pieces didn't fit together enough for me. Of all the things Alice saw over the years, how did this not have a chance to warn us?

Alice moved forward as I sat back down in defeat, distraught to a point I wasn't sure I ever wanted to move again.

"Edward, something had to change. One of you had to make a decision about something that changed the timeline of events. I don't know why it didn't strike me in a vision, I wish I did. I am so sorry," Alice cupped my hands in hers as she kneeled before me. Desperation was in her eyes as all she wanted was my forgiveness, and I knew that she wished she had gotten a vision as much as I did.

And in that moment, with her hands wrapped around mine, her face went blank as her mind raced.

When it was over she gasped, looking up at me for answers as if I had them.

"Edward, when's the last time you even saw Jessica Stanley?"


	6. Chapter 6

The one year anniversary of Bella's death felt like it was looming directly above me all summer.

Once I had gotten back to school last fall, it was the perfect distraction. I was out of Forks and I had never been so happy to have so much homework. I ignored emails from Angela, and I stopped going on Facebook after everyone started sharing their pictures of Bella and Mike changed his relationship status to In a relationship with some girl I did not know. I even got a job at the Starbucks on campus and took a winter course to keep myself from having to go home for any and all holidays.

Most importantly, I took a summer internship at a publicity firm in Los Angeles. I didn't know "internship" really meant "office bitch". Needless to say, I hated it. But every now and then I got to go to a cool event, or take home some free beauty products or clothes, so I managed.

Two weeks before fall semester was set to begin, mom called.

"Jess, honey, we need to talk."

Oh Jesus. Was this going to be an annual thing? Something terrible happens every year at the start of school? I should just change my number and never answer my phone.

"Who's dead now?" I asked sarcastically. Maybe too sarcastically, because I immediately felt guilty about it. Maybe I had removed myself way too far from the situation.

"No, honey. It's about school. I didn't want to tell you when it happened, but your father… he lost his job right after Christmas, and…"

"Christmas? Mom, it's August… What does this have to do with anything?" I asked, annoyed. Why did she think dad having a job affected school? I was running late for work, I didn't really have time to listen to her complain about life in Forks right now.

"We applied for financial aid, but what they approved won't cover your tuition plus room and board. We can't re-finance the house again, we did that when the savings ran out. Jessica, I'm so sorry, but… you're going to have to come home."

I had stopped walking when she said financial aid. It was like I realized what she was telling me before she even finished saying it. I immediately started running numbers in my head. I had $200 in my checking account, and I had about $1000 in my savings. Shit. Paying rent this summer had been tough anyway, and I could only work weekends at Starbucks thanks to my internship. My credit cards were all max'd out, too.

"Well I can get another job. It'll be fine. I can just take less classes and it will open my sched-" I tried to come up with a solution on the spot, but even I knew it was half-assed.

"Jess, I have been talking to counselors at your school for weeks trying to figure something out. I didn't want to have to do this. I know USC was your dream, but baby, we don't have it right now. We would have to sell the house, but our realtor doesn't even know if we would make a profit right now. I'm so sorry. Your father and I looked at flights and we can be there this weekend to help you move out…"

She continued speaking, but I wasn't listening. I sat down on a bus stop bench without realizing it. Tears streamed down my face as I realized that my dream of escaping Forks, escaping small town life, becoming a big-shot publicist and running Hollywood, were all shot. They were gone. Just like that.


	7. Chapter 7

"When you pick up their empty plates you bring them here. Make sure you put them in the soak side of the sink, because if you put them in the rinse side Joe will have a fit. We don't need no more broken dishes to sweep up, right? And if it's slow, you can start to wash…"

I was listening to Marlene teach me the in's and out's of the diner, but barely. Mostly I was trying to keep the steam from coming out of my ears as I dealt with the fact I was officially a waitress. At the diner.

Me.

Jessica Stanley.

Prom queen.

Valedictorian.

Now waiting hand and foot on the men, women, and high school students of Forks. I was my own worst night mare.

Mom had gotten a job as an administrator at the hospital thanks to Dr. Cullen, but dad was still looking for work. It was hard going from being a lawyer at a top notch firm in Port Angeles to applying to sell ties at the mall, but he was doing it.

"It's about time for my break, so you can head on out and cover for an hour. I assume you know your way 'round the dining area? Stanley? You hear me?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, sure, of course. Enjoy your break," I said with a weak smile as I snapped back in to reality and made my way through the greasy kitchen.

The doors swung close behind me and I took a deep breath as I surveyed the counter first before glancing over the new tables that needed to be waited on.

"Hey Frank, need a refill?" I asked the older man I recognized as the mechanic from the local car shop before pouring him a glass of hot coffee.

"Good to see you back around, Jessica. Bet your pop is real happy to have you home."

I smiled politely, swallowing the twinge of guilt that welled up in my throat. I had not said a single word to my father since we crossed the Forks city line. I know it wasn't his fault in particular, but for some reason I was so mad at him. I could hardly stand being in the house and it had only been a few days.

"Can I have more soda?" a plump lady I did not recognize asked as I passed her table. I nodded before heading to the booth towards the back with the couple. Another girl I did not recognize, about my age, brunette, and leaning over the table to hold hands with who I could only assume was her boyfriend.

"Hey there, what can I-" but before I could get out the rest of my opening line, I locked eyes with Mike Newton. It was Mike freaking Newton and his girlfriend.

Looking as baffled by this situation as I was, he sat up quickly and let go of his girlfriend's hand. I could almost hear her pout form.

"Jessica? What are you doing… are you… you work here? Why aren't you in school?"

I could do this. I could take his order, ignore the overwhelming sense of heartbreak in my abdomen. I was better than Mike Newton. We had done the on-and-off for so long I don't even know how much time we were actually in a relationship. And I had ignored so many late-night calls from him over the past year, even though he had this girlfriend, that I could easily ignore the ridiculous situation.

"Taking a year off. No big deal. What can I get you guys? The shakes here are really good," I addressed the brunette with a big smile.

"Mike's gonna get the cheeseburger deluxe, right babe? I'll just have the house salad. What kind of dressing do you have here?"

As she spoke she reached back over for Mike's hand and he obliged with a nervous laugh. I wanted to tell her I already knew what Mike was going to get, he got the same thing at this diner since we were in middle school, and I wanted to slap the grin off of her face too, but I sucked it up.

"Italian. Ranch. Maybe blue cheese, but it's probably expired." I said with a shrug, still smiling.

"Italian then. Not too much. Oh and a Diet Coke. I'm so parched, we were waiting so long."

I bit the inside of my lip as my smile started to flatten. I quickly turned away without saying a word and headed back towards the counter.

"Jessica?"

As if this night could not get any weirder. Since when did Alice Cullen eat here?


End file.
